Malaysia Airlines flight 370

A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing lost contact with air control and went missing more than a hour after it took off in the early hours of Saturday, March 8, 2014. The incident triggered an unprecedented international search and rescue operation that spanned from the southern Indian Ocean to Central Asia and involved more than two dozen countries.

A senior Malaysian official says that an object found in Reunion has been confirmed as “a domestic ladder” and is not a plane part, amid media reports that a new piece of plane debris was found on the island.

Under a microscope and expert eyes, the wing fragment that washed up on the beach of this volcanic island could yield clues not just to its path through the Indian Ocean, but also to what happened to the plane it belonged to.

A piece of Boeing 777 wreckage that washed up on an Indian Ocean island arrived for analysis in France early on Saturday, in the hope that it can be the breakthrough investigators have long been waiting for in the hunt for vanished flight MH370.

Australian authorities yesterday said the discovery of plane wreckage, even if found to be from MH370, would not narrow down the location of the main debris field or solve the mystery of why the jet crashed.

The wreckage, which is two metres long, was found on a beach on the French island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean and is expected to be analysed in France today.

Relatives of Chinese passengers on board a Malaysia Airlines plane that went missing 16 months ago were waiting anxiously on Thursday night for confirmation that aircraft debris found on Réunion Island in the southern Indian Ocean was from the jetliner.

News broke today that searchers may have discovered part of the remains of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared more than a year ago and left in its place one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time.

The passenger plane was running a routine flight between Malaysia and Beijing on March 8 last year when it disappeared less than an hour after it took off.

Frustrated Chinese relatives of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 passengers have criticised a lack of communication from officials and investigators after plane wreckage of a Boeing 777 was discovered on remote Reunion Island.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said "initial reports suggest the debris is very likely to be from a 777" but that it is too early to speculate. The debris will be shipped by French authorities to Toulouse, site of the nearest office of the BEA, he said.